AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 263, Issue 5 996-1002, Copyright © 1992 by American Physiological Society
Precocious cessation of intestinal macromolecular transport by synthetic trypsin inhibitor in suckling rats
E. Harada, Y. Hashimoto and B. Syuto
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
The effects of repeated oral administration of the synthetic trypsin
inhibitor camostat on intestinal macromolecular transport and
disaccharidase development were investigated in suckling rats. By daily
treatment with camostat, bovine immunoglobulin (Ig) G transport in the
intestine declined more rapidly in treated than in control rats. The
absorption curve shifted to the left in treated rats 3 days before the
controls. Morphological inspection of treated pups showed a decline in the
number of epithelial cells that absorb bovine IgG and in their vesicle size
from basal to upper regions of the villi. Maltase activity precociously
increased with camostat treatment. Chronic subcutaneous injection of
camostat did not cause any changes in IgG transport and maltase activity.
The depression of IgG transport by oral treatment with camostat was not
affected by the cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor antagonist L 364718 and was
not inhibited by adrenalectomy. The absorptive responses of IgG and maltase
activity were not affected by CCK-8 treatment. These data indicate that
oral administration of camostat induces precocious maturation of the small
intestine and that the effect is not mediated via endogenous CCK released
by camostat.
